Quick answer
Important
1. When you can be required to work overtime
There is no general duty to work more than your contracted hours. A requirement to do so has to come from somewhere: your contract, a collective agreement, a works agreement, or an emergency where serious harm would otherwise result.
Even where such a basis exists, the statutory working time limits still apply. Overtime cannot push you past ten hours in a day or breach the eleven-hour rest period, and no contract clause can authorise that.
Some groups have additional protection: pregnant employees, young workers under 18, and in some circumstances employees with a severe disability or with certain caring responsibilities.
Good to know
2. Must overtime be paid?
Overtime that the employer required, or knowingly accepted, generally has to be compensated. Compensation can be money or time off in lieu, and which applies depends on your contract or the collective agreement.
German law does not impose a general statutory overtime premium in the way some countries do. Premiums of 25 % or 50 % are common, but they usually come from a collective agreement or the contract rather than from statute.
The "included in salary" clause
Many contracts state that overtime is included in the agreed salary. Courts have repeatedly held such clauses invalid where they are not transparent: an employee has to be able to tell from the contract how much extra work is covered.
A clause specifying a defined quantity, for example up to a stated number of hours per month, has a much better chance of holding than an unlimited one. Blanket clauses are particularly vulnerable for employees whose pay is not high.
For genuinely senior, well-paid roles the position is different, and a court may accept that overtime is reflected in the salary. The threshold is high and relates to earnings levels well above average.
Time off in lieu and working time accounts
Many employers run an Arbeitszeitkonto, banking hours above or below contracted time for later balancing. This is lawful and usually sensible, but check two things: whether banked hours expire, and what happens to a positive balance when you leave.
Hours that simply lapse at year end are a common and often unlawful arrangement. On termination, a positive balance normally has to be paid out.
3. Proving it: the part that decides cases
Overtime claims are usually lost on evidence rather than on law. You have to show that you worked the hours and that the employer required them or knew about them and accepted them.
The employer’s duty to record working time helps considerably: where no records exist, the employer is in a much weaker position. But your own contemporaneous record is what makes a claim straightforward.
Record every day, on the day
Start, finish and break times. A note written weeks later is worth far less than one written at the time.
Keep the instruction or the acceptance
The email asking you to finish something, the meeting invitation outside hours, the message thanking you for staying late. This is what establishes that the overtime was required or accepted.
Check your own contract and any collective agreement
Look for how overtime is compensated and for any deadline for claiming it. A Verfallklausel can be short, though very short ones are invalid.
Raise it in writing, early
A polite written request for compensation both preserves your position and often resolves it. Verbal complaints leave no record.
Involve the works council
Overtime is a matter it has co-determination rights over. It is the fastest and cheapest route to a solution where one exists.
Watch the deadlines
Contractual claim deadlines can be a few months. Do not let a claim lapse while waiting for goodwill.
Deadlines bite
4. Frequently asked questions
Only where your contract, a collective agreement or a works agreement provides for it, or in a genuine emergency. Even then the statutory working time limits still apply, and no clause can authorise breaching them.
Overtime the employer required or knowingly accepted generally has to be compensated, in money or in time off. German law does not impose a general statutory premium: the 25 % or 50 % supplements people expect usually come from a collective agreement or the contract.
Often not. Courts have struck down blanket clauses as insufficiently transparent, because you cannot tell how much extra work is covered. Clauses specifying a defined number of hours hold up better, and for very high earners a court may accept that overtime is reflected in the salary.
Arrangements that simply cancel unused hours at year end are common and frequently unlawful. Check your working time account rules, and note that a positive balance normally has to be paid out when you leave.
Keep a daily contemporaneous record of start, finish and break times, and retain the emails or messages showing the work was required or accepted. Your employer also has a duty to record hours, and its failure to do so weakens its position in a dispute.
Check your contract and any collective agreement: claim deadlines of a few months are common, although extremely short ones are invalid. Raise the claim in writing early rather than relying on goodwill.
Official information
Rules and amounts change. Always verify current requirements using official sources.
Related guides
Amounts and legal requirements can change. We verify this information against official sources and show when each figure was last checked, but always confirm important requirements with the responsible authority before you apply.
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